Outbound contact centers originate communications to individuals for various purposes, ranging from telemarketing to debt collection. For maximum effectiveness, the contacted party frequently interacts with an agent, as opposed to, e.g., an interactive voice response unit. Regardless of what criteria are used to define a successful or optimal outcome for the contact, it is not surprising that the skills of the agent greatly impact the outcome of the contact. Further, other factors may be involved in contributing to an optimized contact between the agent and the contacted party. These factors may involve matching various characteristics, such as personality and demographic characteristics, between the agent and the contacted party.
Matching the contacted party's characteristics with the agent's characteristics can result in an affinity between the two that further optimizes the contact. Such matching may be based on personality, demographics, native language or dialects, ethnic background, age, or other criteria. However, these relationship affinity matchings rely on the conventional call center techniques of matching a contacted party of an outbound initiated call with an available agent. For example, several outgoing calls may be initiated by the contact center wherein the first answered call is then connected to the most appropriate, available agent. However, the most appropriate and available agent may not necessarily be the most appropriate agent, as the most appropriate agent may not be available. Thus, an optimized matching between the contacted party and the agent is not likely to occur.
Further, calls are typically originated during a call center shift which may not necessarily reflect the best time to call that party. Thus, there is no assurance that when the communication using the contact record is originated, the desired contact person will be contacted, nor that the best agent to handle the communication will be available.
Thus, a mechanism is required that ensures parties to be contacted are matched with the most appropriate agent. It is with these and other considerations that the technologies and techniques disclosed here are presented.